Chapter 278
Chapter 278
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 278
Chapter Title: Heart
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"...Ah."
As soon as I peered into the heavenly record, memories of everything that had happened came flooding into my mind.
Blocked by the immense wall of reincarnation, those memories weren't truly mine—they felt more like a third party's distant observation of 'Oh, so I went through all that.' They served as a safety net, shielding my current self from being overwhelmed by the past.
"L-Liar! Fraud! There's no way I said something like that!"
Once the playback ended, those words burst out of me on reflex.
"Ho ho. Now you're going to deny reality?"
"Th-There's no way I said stuff like that! Especially not to you!"
"Sigh. Whatever happened to that lovesick kid who fell for me at first sight and came courting? How'd you turn into this prickly brat? It feels like just yesterday you were clinging to me, bawling because I turned you down..."
"That never happened!!!!!!!!"
No, wait, hold on just a second.
"$%#$#$@"
"Speak like a human, not some tentacle monster gibberish."
"Ah, n-no... Th-that was really what happened?"
"You know the properties of the heavenly record by now, don't you? No matter what, it can't fabricate events that never took place."
"R... Right..."
No matter how hard I tried to deny it, every circumstance pointed to the scene I'd just witnessed being real.
That I'd genuinely fallen for the Celestial Sovereign and confessed to her...
"Aaaargh!"
"Now you've gone and broken completely. Should I flick your forehead again?"
"...No, but did I really look like that?"
Considering how I'd always been cussing her out, teasing her, and when she got mad, she'd come down in Yeo Sochen's body to vent her stress on me...
It hadn't even been long since I'd learned she was truly my benefactor, so I hadn't sorted out my feelings yet. Hearing that I'd confessed to the Celestial Sovereign in that state...
"...Wait a minute. Does that mean you accepted?"
"Huh?"
"Y-You did all sorts of things to me in Yeo Sochen's body! What was that about?!"
"I told you back then. You were being so arrogant, it kept building up my frustration. Then a perfect opportunity came along, so I came down to teach you a lesson and put you in your place."
"N-No, but then..."
"Ah. I know exactly what you're thinking. 'Now I have to take responsibility for her too'? That's it, right?"
Wasn't it?
Sure, it was before my reincarnation, but I'd confessed to the Celestial Sovereign, and she'd responded in that... somewhat twisted way...
"Don't worry about it. Right now, you've got enough on your plate worrying about the people you've met in this life."
"...Pardon?"
"Don't worry about me. That was really just... a divine whim in a moment of anger. You said on Earth it's common to hook up after locking eyes with someone, right? Think of it like that."
"..."
-Blank
"What's with that look?"
"N-No... It was just unexpected."
"Good grief. So you really thought a mere human has to take responsibility for sleeping with a god once? If I became your wife, could you even handle me? Even if I look like this, I'm the supreme god who's been around since the birth of this world."
"...Uh..."
I probably couldn't.
"Exactly. You couldn't. You're just a kid drifting along with whatever pulls you in. There's no way you could shoulder that kind of burden."
"...Hey. Saying it like that kinda hurts."
"That's why... you don't need to do anything."
"...Pardon?"
She wore the same playful smile as before, but it felt like the meaning behind it had shifted.
"You don't need to take responsibility for everyone drawn to your scent. You don't need to torment yourself blaming yourself for what happens because of them. You're just a kid who was born that way."
"...Ah."
"You don't have to force yourself to grasp everything in your hands. Just grab as much as you want... as much as you can. Your hands are too small to hold it all."
She's...
trying to comfort me.
...............
"...Haha."
The reason I'd been struggling.
The reason I'd grown mentally exhausted, depressed, and finally collapsed lately.
"I've been trying to carry too much."
I knew better than anyone that my hands were small,
yet I'd arrogantly tried to shoulder more than my station.
Dang Ayoung, the Sword Empress, Yeo Sochen, my master, and Erdel before she revealed her true colors—plus the Heavenly Demon.
I couldn't let go of the emotions stirred up by being surrounded by women who shone far brighter than someone like me, so I carried them all.
And it wasn't just that—vampires, the world's destruction piling on, the weight kept growing,
and even after collapsing, I hadn't realized I was trying to bear too much.
But...
"...What if I don't want to let go?"
"How much?"
"All of it."
"Greedy one."
"Is that bad?"
"...Kids are supposed to hate letting go of what they hold."
Even so...
I didn't want to let go of what I had.
"Now, if there's a burden you can't carry alone, what do you do? Isn't there a most basic way?"
"...Ask the people around me for help."
"Right, you idiot."
...Why hadn't I realized?
I'm not that great a person—why had I shouldered more than I could handle?
"...Please help me."
From now on, at least.
For the things I can't do...
-Smack!
"Ack!"
"Not me, idiot."
"...Pardon?"
"There are already people much closer to you than I am."
"...Ah."
...That's what she meant.
"You think those people would refuse if you asked for help?"
"...No."
"Then go tell them."
-Whirr
As the Celestial Sovereign finished speaking, a strange pattern appeared beneath my feet.
"Apologize to the Heavenly Demon. Even for you, that was too much back then. She's not the type to turn down someone who says they're feeling burdened and wants to take it slow while getting to know each other."
"W-Wait! That's not the issue right now?!"
I appreciated the comfort.
Really grateful...
"Erdel's revealed her true colors and everything's gone to hell..."
"Ah. You'll figure out what to do about that once you're down there."
"...What's wrong with telling me now?!"
"Nope."
-Whirrr
With that, a blinding light erupted from the pattern at my feet, turning my vision pure white.
"Bye-bye~ I'll come down in Yeo Sochen's body from time to time~"
The last voice I heard faded, and when my vision cleared again,
"Wake up! Come on, wake up! You can't die here..."
"...Dang Ayoung?"
"Ah! You're awake!"
A familiar face I hadn't seen in ages greeted me, cradling me with an anxious expression.
"Young master, this place is..."
-Grab!
"Thank goodness! You're alive! Your external wounds didn't seem too bad, but you wouldn't respond no matter how I called, just staring blankly into space—I thought something terrible had happened...!"
"...Ah."
Not her usual bury-your-face hug, but one where our faces crossed, letting me see Dang Ayoung clearly.
Scratches all over her body, hair somewhat sheared off, clear signs of bleeding and bandaging.
She didn't look to be in great shape herself,
"Thank goodness... Really, thank goodness..."
"..."
Yet the first thing she did after pushing through such danger was worry about me.
"...Yeah. Sorry for worrying you, Ayoung."
"...P-Pardon?!"
No more averting my eyes.
"You don't like me calling you by name? Hate it?"
"N-No! I-It's not that I hate it...! Y-You said casual speech felt awkward and hard for you..."
"If Ayoung wants it, I have to do it even if it's tough."
"Awaaa..."
Did I hit her dead center?
Dang Ayoung's face turned completely beet red, a rare sight.
"N-No... I-It's good, really good...! But this isn't the time for lovey-dovey stuff with the situation like this...!"
"I know. Can you explain what's going on first?"
"Ugh... Even if I die on this battlefield, I won't have regrets. Ah, f-first... That Er... The saintess betrayed us."
"I know that much... Tell me what Erdel's doing now."
"Um... For now, my master, the Sword Empress, and I are holding her off together... Lord Thunderclap Sword's badly injured and resting. She said she'd been fighting alone before we arrived..."
"...She's okay?"
"For now... No one's died yet. Ah, some people from the Demonic Cult showed up too... But they're blocking other monsters swarming in. They said they couldn't help much at their level..."
"...Yeah, probably."
Erdel was among the absolute top-tier heroes even among the countless ones left back then.
After the world ended, fueled by betrayal toward the gods, she slaughtered them all and absorbed every life in the world—she'd only grown stronger, not weaker.
I didn't doubt my master or the Sword Empress's strength, but Erdel was on an entirely different plane now.
"...She said I'd naturally know what to do once I went down, but what the hell is this..."
As I inwardly cursed the Celestial Sovereign for her prank in this urgent crisis, something familiar caught my eye.
"...Hold on. That."
"Yes?"
"What's with all those swords?"
Swords scattered everywhere around us.
Broken, ruined, cracked—useless for fighting now—but that wasn't the point.
"Ah... Sword Flower...? She came too... Somehow she got weapons from the saintess. Said she had permission to summon swords from an armory full of them... I don't get it, but swords kept flying out from nowhere. Now that the betrayal's out, she can't anymore... But looks like she stockpiled a ton beforehand. She's handling them as flying swords with the Sword Empress."
"...She came too?"
...For a moment, the memory of her shattering my dantian flashed in my mind, but that wasn't relevant now.
The key was that Erdel's armory had been linked to her.
'Maybe.'
If my guess was right, after the world's end, Erdel had organized all the treasuries into one warehouse and used it to provide me with the shop interface.
And if that hypothesis held, there was no way she hadn't reclaimed it...
"Ayoung. I have something to say."
"Yes! Anything!"
"Once this is all over and we get back... Let's get married then."
"...!!!"
"...I'll have to say it to the others too."
If you ask why I'm suddenly raising a death flag, I'd say I've just resolved to live a bit more honestly.
Flags like that don't turn wins into losses just because you say them.
Words that need saying must be said before you can't.
"Wh-What do I do... I'm so happy I might just die right here."
"I'll make you even happier once we're back, so hang in there."
"Y-You're really you, right? This isn't some illusion, is it? The you I know wouldn't say stuff like this."
"...I've been pretty passive with affection so far."
Partly because she was already expressing it physically all over, so words felt unnecessary.
But seeing her so delighted, I decided I'd do it more often from now on.
For starters...
I planned to check with Yeo Sochen if this plan was feasible.